The man who would not die until he saw the savior

People of the Book- Simeon and Anna

Although the liturgical season of Christmas technically ends with the celebration of the baptism of the Lord on the Sunday after the Epiphany, let us focus our attention this week on two figures that touch the young infant’s life. The Latin church celebrates the presentation of the Lord in the Temple 40 days after Christmas (which, of course, commemorates an event that occurred well before his baptism as an adult). The feast is traditionally called Candlemas and marks the remembrance of Mary following the custom of reentering the Temple in accord with the Mosaic law of ritual purity, and dedicating her firstborn infant to God in the first solemn Jewish religious ceremony of his life. The biblical accounts of this event include two fascinating figures, Simeon and Anna.

Luke recounts that the devout Jew Simeon had been told by God that he would not die until he saw the Savior of Israel during his lifetime. Candlemas celebrations all over the world remember Simeon’s prayer as he takes the newborn Light of the World into his aging arms, reciting what is traditionally called the Nunc Dimittis: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32). Luke here uses the masculine of the same word for “servant” (doulos) which he places on Mary’s lips at the annunciation, which we in her case most often translate today as “handmaid.” Simeon goes on to prophesy that this child “is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” (The “rising” here is described by Luke with the word anastasis — the same Greek term used in the “rising up” from the dead of the Resurrection account).

He also informs Mary that a sword will pierce her heart, of course predicting the unimaginable suffering she will one day undergo at the foot of the Cross and the demanding (and thus divisive) message of Jesus which will rend “a household of five, three against two and two against three” (Luke 12:52). The image of a heart pierced by one or seven swords is in Christian iconography associated with Mary as the mater dolorosa, the Mother of Sorrows, to which Simeon here alludes.

Also present in this narrative is Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She is described by Luke with the quite specific age of 84, and interestingly called a “prophetess,” the only person in the New Testament so named. After her initial prayer of thanksgiving to God, she “spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem” (2:38). She is then the first Lucan proselytizer, spreading the Good News to those she encounters in the Temple, where the widow had remained constantly praying and fasting for years. We see in the parallelism of Simeon and Anna Luke’s penchant for placing women on equal footing with men, at least relatively speaking. Luke’s writings manifest an egalitarian respect for the sexes in a manner which surpasses other writers in the patriarchal society of the time.

The sentiments of closing out “the most wonderful time of the year” as the song puts it, are embodied in Robert Herrick’s poem, “Ceremonies for Candlemas Eve,” which in describing the taking down of Christmas decorations, calls to mind both the upcoming feast of the Presentation and the eschatological life of each Christian, focused on the rising eternal Sun that dispels the darkness forever:

Down with the rosemary and bays, down with the mistletoe/ Instead of holly, now upraise, the greener box for show.

Green rushes then, and sweetest bents/ with cooler oaken boughs/ Come in for comely ornaments/ to re-adorn the house.

Thus times do shift; each thing his turn does hold/ New things succeed, as former things grow old.”

As with the biblical assertion of Ecclesiastes 3 (made famous in the song by the Byrds), there is a season and place for every activity, and we now liturgically turn our attention from the remembrance of the Lord’s conception, birth and infancy to his ministry and teaching in the rather extraordinary and lengthy period of Ordinary Time.

Michael M. Canaris of Collingswood is an administrator at Fairfield University’s Center for Faith and Public Life and is on the faculty for the Department of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies